


Bombs Away

by justmysicklypride



Series: Tumblr Ask Prompts [3]
Category: Durarara!!
Genre: Age Difference, Alternate Universe - Assassins & Hitmen, Developing Relationship, Guns, Gunshot Wounds, I intended for it to be slice of life but idk if I conveyed it well, Implied Sexual Content, M/M, Mentor/Protégé, Murder, Senpai-Kouhai Relationship, Slice of Life, Tumblr Prompt, Yakuza, kind of?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-26
Updated: 2020-03-26
Packaged: 2021-02-28 23:47:03
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,306
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23325736
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/justmysicklypride/pseuds/justmysicklypride
Summary: Wherein the yakuza reckons Izaya sucks at killing people, so they enlist Shizuo, their most notorious hitman, to teach him how.Prompt: “I’m too sober for this.” “You don’t even drink.” “Maybe I should start.”Taken from: https://justmysicklypride.tumblr.com/post/612434643114983424/sentence-starters
Relationships: Heiwajima Shizuo/Orihara Izaya
Series: Tumblr Ask Prompts [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1676668
Comments: 3
Kudos: 42





	Bombs Away

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Muzuki_chan](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Muzuki_chan/gifts).



> Reposted from Tumblr  
> (For the record, Izaya is 19 in this and Shizuo's 25)

In hindsight, Izaya supposed it really would be too easy if they’d just given him the target and told him to get on with it, but sometimes he’d like to think that maybe Shiki-san had a sense of humour. Somewhere in there, maybe, though even Izaya wasn’t entirely sure where the humour currently lies in this present situation.

It was a simple enough task, relatively speaking, to get off the bullet train at Ikebukuro station and head to where the target was, and it really would’ve been just as simple as that if it weren’t for a certain annoyance that stopped him the moment his feet even touched the platform.

“I still can’t believe they hired a babysitter for me,” Izaya lamented for the billionth time as he propped his chair on its two back legs, and watched as said ‘babysitter’ skillfully set up his sniper rifle against the window of the vacated apartment building they were in. 

“Babysitter, my ass. Like hell if I have time to take care of some stupid brat _and_ do my job at the same time,” Shizuo snapped at him, but his eye was focused on looking through the scope to line up the shot. Izaya heard him mutter underneath his breath, “I can’t believe they’re making me do this again.”

“Well okay then, Heiwajima-senpai,” Izaya said, almost sarcastically. “Then do pray tell why exactly we’re hiding out in an apartment and shooting someone in the head in broad daylight where the police could very obviously trace the flight path of the bullet back to us?”

“Shut up,” Shizuo said, readjusting the gloves on his hands and looking back into the scope. He brought his finger down onto the trigger. “It’s none of your business.” 

“Huh? I thought Heiwajima-senpai was meant to be mentoring me,” Izaya said, annoyed that he was being brushed off but amused all the same. His new senpai had a short temper and an incredible amount of strength, and somehow Izaya can’t tell whether they’ll actually get along or not.

“I am,” Shizuo replied, and for just one second Izaya almost admired just how calm Shizuo was as he fired with no hesitation. 

A gunshot sounded through the air, and Izaya’s ears started ringing. Screams tore through the streets as people started frantically running and shouting for help. Shizuo didn’t even need to check whether he’d died or not. Apparently, it was a given. 

“Lesson one - don’t ask unnecessary questions that could get yourself into trouble,” Shizuo finished, as he started to take off his gloves.

///

One thing led to another, and just over a month later, Izaya found himself sitting next to Shizuo in some weird sushi place that had an affinity for Russian customs. Apparently it was a semi-popular place to eat at, regardless of time of day, and that they’d been around for quite a long time. He saw three high school students walk past them to sit in a booth, and Izaya briefly wondered what it would’ve been like if he grew up here instead of Shinjuku, if he and Shizuo would end up meeting each other under those circumstances as well. 

They weren’t exactly friends per se, merely coworkers that just decided to grab lunch together. It was fine, Izaya supposed, but appreciated it all the same when Shizuo mentioned how he’d dared his friend to swallow an entire pot of the complementary wasabi once and they all ended up having to stay back an extra three hours to help the owners clean up all the throw-up that resulted from it. 

(“You would think that he’d say no, given that his dad was a doctor and all, but sometimes he really is just as dumb as a sack of bricks.”)

///

Shizuo’s hands were warm wrapped around his. Izaya couldn’t help but look at the way their hands fit together, albeit the fact that Izaya was in turn holding the grip of a pistol and that they were meant to be doing practice rounds. He reluctantly drew his eyes away from their hands to look at the human shaped target in front of them, Shizuo’s instructions that had previously been drowned out by Izaya’s daydreaming slowly resurfacing.

“Were you even listening, Izaya-kun?” Shizuo said, and Izaya refrained from jolting in surprise when he felt more than heard Shizuo’s voice so close next to his ear.

“Ah- yeah,” Izaya stumbled. He cleared his throat.

A beat of silence. Then, “Okay, good,” Shizuo said. Slowly, he let go of Izaya’s hands. “Here, you try firing now.”

Izaya nodded absentmindedly, both of them putting their earmuffs on as Izaya pulled the safety switch, then the trigger, then firing a shot that hit the target straight in the head. Shizuo had deemed it a little wonky so he fired again, and again. He fired again, and briefly thought about how his ears had gotten used to the sound. He fired the last two rounds and missed the heart by a few centimetres. 

“Your hands are shaking,” Shizuo commented, tossing another speedloader at him, and Izaya grit his teeth. 

///

“I’ve never asked you why you decided to become a hitman, Shizuo-senpai,” Izaya said one day, crouched on the ground and squinting against the ray of sunlight that hit Shizuo’s dyed hair in a way that reflected something akin to a halo around him.

The target, or rather the corpse, that Izaya just stabbed to death laid motionless and propped against the wall of the alleyway, as Shizuo looked up from his phone and frowned. 

“I guess I did it because the opportunity was there and I took it,” Shizuo shrugged, glancing down at the screen again. He was probably contacting the clean-up crew, and Izaya couldn’t be bothered pushing it further. “Why did you?”

He wondered if this man he just killed had a family, friends, or even someone who sees him often enough that his disappearance would actually make a dent in society, where him no longer existing would impact those around him in some sort of elaborate ripple effect that somehow even Izaya got tangled up in, even for just a small moment. Izaya laughed.

“Why does anyone do anything? If this is how we all end up in the end,” Izaya said, and Shizuo merely watched with a small frown.

He didn’t say anything to that.

///

Through it all, Shizuo never told him the exact reason why he decided to be some cold blooded killer for the notorious yakuza of Ikebukuro, but he did give him the reason as to why they kept him around.

“Because you’re a dog?” Izaya asked, unflinching. “I supposed it made sense. Following orders without a question or protest, and just as loyal as any other lapdog would be if you simply just fed it enough… I would keep you too if I could.” 

Shizuo clicked his tongue in annoyance, and Izaya had to hold in a yelp as Shizuo moved his hand to dig the flat of his thumb into Izaya’s ankle roughly. The bandages that Shizuo had been wrapping around Izaya’s leg loosened out of his grip and fluttered onto the sofa cushion, though neither of them paid it any mind. It wasn’t until after an excruciatingly long glaring contest (excruciatingly long for Izaya, at least) that Shizuo finally looked away to pick it back up again to resume patching up Izaya’s gunshot wound.

“It’s not that hard to not question everything, Izaya,” Shizuo said, the name rolling off his tongue as easily as the soft roll of bandages from out of his hand. It was difficult to ignore the masked strength that Shizuo’s hands contained wrapped around his ankle like that, but Izaya managed all the same.

“And here I thought the yakuza would appreciate me doing a little bit more research before I went and randomly started shooting at people,” Izaya said.

The bandage felt a bit too tight, and Izaya wasn’t going to say anything but it appeared Shizuo figured it out by himself, because he immediately went to take it off again just to start over.

“What they appreciate,” Shizuo said. “Is hitmen that do their job according to how they want it done.” He was referring to their first assignment together, Izaya realised, which explained the unconventional killing method, but still…

“And you’re fine with them just using you like that? Taking orders and never calling the shots? Ah, don’t tell me it’s some sort of fetish, senpai?” Izaya teased. 

Shizuo pinched his leg this time, muttering the word “brat” under his breath, and Izaya secretly retracted his earlier statement. Shizuo was definitely more of a hound dog than a lapdog.

///

“Are you proud of me, senpai?” Izaya asked, eagerly hopping into the passenger seat of the car that was parked in front of the Awakusu-kai headquarters. He waved the envelope in his hand towards Shizuo, the inside of which stacked full of cash from his latest job well done, and the phone in his pocket buzzed once, twice, with new lists and new names of people Izaya had to ‘take care of’. Maybe it was a sign that he was finally getting somewhere, and for some reason there was a bittersweet ache in his heart as the thought passed by.

Shizuo lit a cigarette and Izaya knew that his reasons for not lowering the window was partly because the last thing they needed was someone overhearing their conversation, but mostly just to piss Izaya off. At first, yeah, maybe it did annoy Izaya more than a little bit, but it’s been countless months now since they first met and maybe Izaya had gotten just that little bit more used to the burning sensation that cigarette smoke always left on his nose. Shizuo started the car, and Izaya told him where to drop him off.

“I thought I taught you not to ask stupid questions, flea,” Shizuo said, eventually. “You still can’t lift a sniper rifle on your own, and I doubt even your knife throwing skills can reach past two blocks in the span of three seconds.”

“That’s true,” Izaya hummed. Then, he turned to meet Shizuo’s eyes in the rearview mirror. “But I guess that’s what I have Shizu-chan for, huh?”

///

(Some more months later and Izaya found himself back in that car again. Only this time it was in the back seat, and Shizuo was on top of him, making him feel all these amazing sensations that Izaya couldn’t even begin to describe, and using nothing more than a mouth and a hand underneath his shirt, managed to undo any shred of uncertainty that Izaya might’ve had. He doesn’t think he’s ever been so sure in his life.

It was messy when they started, and it was messy when they finished, Izaya’s voice hoarse and Shizuo only barely having enough energy and willpower left to get up and start the engine, so that they could both go home and decide where to take it from there.)

///

Then, one day, “You should quit.” 

Izaya hummed as he lowered his mug of tea away from his face, and he felt Shizuo loosen the arms that he’d wrapped around Izaya’s waist, so he could put in on the coffee table in front of them. 

“And why’s that, Shizu-chan?” Izaya asked. He felt Shizuo’s hand entwine with his and he turned to look up at him.

“It’s not good for you,” Shizuo said with a shrug. “And besides, I found out why you did it.”

Izaya tensed, looking away. “Yeah?” he said, and Shizuo’s thumb started rubbing circles on his hand so that maybe he’ll loosen up. “Well, I kinda doubt you did, really-”

“You hate yourself, don’t you?” Shizuo asked- stated, bluntly. He didn’t know how to respond so Shizuo continued, “I thought as much. Killing people isn’t your thing, you’re only doing it because for some weirdly stupid reason, you feel the need to punish yourself by doing the things you hate the most as some equally dumb way of making up for it.”

There was something so painful, yet relieving at hearing it spoken aloud for once. Although right now, the pain definitely outweighed the relief, and Izaya struggled to get out of Shizuo’s effortless embrace. 

So he laughed. “I can’t believe you’re making me deal with this right now,” Izaya said.

“You have to, eventually,” Shizuo said, and Izaya wanted to punch him for how calm his voice sounded. 

“Yeah, well, I’m too sober for this. Especially right now,” Izaya said. A lame attempt at a joke. 

“You don’t even drink,” Shizuo said, and _of course he remembered_ .   
  
“Maybe I should start,” Izaya said. A challenge, but a half-hearted one.

“And defeat the entire purpose we’re even having this conversation in the first place?” Shizuo said, looking at him like he was stupid. He probably was. Hell, he probably looked stupid too, being called out like this. “Just think about it at least,” Shizuo said.

Izaya couldn’t word out a yes, his lack thereof conscience would probably kill him for it, so he simply nodded, closing his eyes as Shizuo smiled before leaning in to kiss him.

They pulled apart when Shizuo’s phone started beeping - naturally, a new job, and Shizuo stood up to get changed in their joint bedroom. Before he went upstairs, however, Izaya stopped him.

“Wait,” he said, chewing his lip. “If I really do stop… What will I do, then?”  
  
Shizuo looked at him thoughtfully, one leg perched on the next step up with no intention of rushing, despite another urgent beep of his phone.

Finally, he said, “I don’t know, but I mean, you like humans don’t you?” Shizuo said, like he was thinking out loud. “And you’re good at research.” Another beep, and Shizuo shrugged, “I heard they’re looking for a new informant.”

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Bless you Muzuki for sending this prompt. I hope you enjoyed the extra snippet/scenes I added in haha  
> (This one goes out to you too, Kari. If you're reading this <3)


End file.
